The Journal of IwantLess

[cmonkey]

I hit the 4% FI mark recently as well at my current high COL expenses....I’m freaking 28 and have all the money I need for the rest of my life. That is a ridiculously crazy concept.

Congrats! That is a powerful position to be in. If you stay just an extra year or two you will be even better off! It is great to see people reaching the FI point. Hope you keep posting!

[Pronoid]

Well, I’m a bit over the six month marker now being in West LA. I can say with confidence that this is one of the best places I’ve lived thus far. That statement is of course highly dependent on the collective combination of my situation. All of the major places I go are all within a 3 mile radius. Uber/bus it for social stuff that might be far away. I live in cruise mode and it’s pretty damn awesome.

Add the above to the fact that work is ridiculously laid back and not demanding results in this place being pretty badass. The specific sector that I support in my industry is booming and growing like crazy. People show up at the office at 10 or 11 and leave whenever they feel like it. I am physically at work for 6 hours tops. Volleyball and frisbee matches are common with company paid for booze. Daily nerf battles. It really is quite a reality shift. Basically a startup culture inside a gigantic company.

Even with all the perks, freedom, and flexibility, I still count down to when I no longer have to be here, which is crazy to me. I have the funds to walk away but March of 2016 is the minimum date to what I’m aiming for. Relocation payback timer will be up, 401k will be maxed, and I should be at a 4% WR on my taxable account only. Working one more year after that will set me up very well to only live off the dividends from my taxable account. But anywhere during that next year I could still peace out whenever I felt like without being bound by anything.

When I’m not slacking at work, I’m usually getting my tan on at the beach, sculpting the guns at the gym, or salsa dancing. I decided to loosen my savings rate a bit and spend on group salsa lessons which has been really fun. I’ve been doing it for several months now and have considerably improved. Plus it’s a good way to socialize and meet people. It’s quite interesting dancing with a young smoking hot girl for one dance and then a woman in her late 60s a few minutes later. Very diverse which is great. I’m thinking about doing this medal exam as some kind of goal to shoot for. We’ll see. I’m at least at a point where I can competently go somewhere and lay down some moves, which is all I really wanted.

With all the greatness that surrounds me here, I still run into the same issues socially and culturally. People my age are super spendy or don’t have their act together by being in crazy debt or being underemployed. Most of the people I meet that have their shit together with similar interests are always considerably older or I end up not being attracted to them. And a lot of people here seem to be over the top into the superficial organic veganism. LA in general is filled with fake people but combine that with the negative stereotypes of eating only organic food in a vegan manner…geebus. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against healthy living or organic food by any means. But there is a crazy over the top feeling here that’s hard to describe. There’s like some balanced line that I have a hard time describing and I feel like most people here breach it. Add that to eating out 60-90% of the time and bars and gadget spending.. yikes. I have to bite my tongue all the time. I eat consistently healthier, live healthier, work out more, ride my bike daily, etc and spend a fraction. Blows the mind. Because of that, I really don’t see myself being in LA long term. If I could replace everyone with ERE/MMM types then it would be perfect.. Although the MMM forum tends to have the over the top organic crowd there too at times. Again, nothing wrong with that stuff just a humorous rant. It does make me laugh when someone is going on about how being vegan is so much healthier and how their body is a temple while they pound some greasy ass fries or a bag of lays potato chips. Funny.

On the topic of minimalism, I’m basically at the point where I only own things I actively use. I have one more load to donate to charity/leave out for taking and one bag of papers that need scanning then I’m there. I gave my microwave away recently just to see if I could survive and it was surprisingly painless. Warming up my lunches in the microwave used to take about 3 minutes. Toaster oven, which was included in my apartment, takes about 15-20. So a little more patience is all. The count is at about ~175-200 things, most of which could fit in a few backpacks on my bike.

My monthly core costs here have been dialed in to about 1600 a month, which includes 300 of whatever spending like dance, uber rides, clothes, etc. So living next to the beach in a very high COL area and I still spend about $20k a year with over 65% being rent. Very similar to when I lived near NYC, which is also a very high COL area. It makes me smile thinking about that as i could easily work a part time job and live the exact same life and not need the huge nest egg that I have. I’ve realized that has been the real skill earned from this journey. Being able to happily live off very little is an incredible ability to have. Having money saved is definitely a great peace of mind but a bigger peace of mind is knowing that none of it is really needed.

I find myself spending a lot of time in a weird ‘blah’ kind of mental state. Knowing that I can cruise at work for 8-20 months and still do an above average job makes for zero motivation at doing more than is necessary. A lot of my mental energy was occupied with optimizing my belongings with minimalism stuff, but now that goal is essentially complete. Saving for ERE has been on autopilot for a while. I basically need some new major goal to consume myself. I might go gung ho in learning spanish again but I need to find someone to practice with. I would really like to find a hobby that would allow me to invest my spare time perfecting and mastering but I have quite the hard time figuring out what it would be. That topic actually bugs me a lot. If I decide to motorcycle camp across the US someday for example, it would be nice to have something to occupy nights when there’s nothing going on more than just looking at nothing on the internet or reading. I’ve toyed with learning the ukulele or harmonica since it’s small and portable. I’m sure once I reach that point I’ll have plenty to do with photography, photo editing, writing, etc. But it would be nice to start something now and have it carry over to whatever cool shit I end up doing later on.

My plan for what’s next keeps changing but the top choices are either van dwelling across the US, motorcycle camping the US, staying in AirBnB monthly rentals in random places all over the world, staying in AirBnB rentals for 3-6 months in places in the US while getting a fun part time social job, doing some kind of WWOOF living, or just working another extra year in LA and doing a social experiment/challenge where I have to spend every dollar I make since I’d be done saving. Before I quit I am planning on doing something nice for my mom/family. Like one last really big gift before I become a nomad on a budget. I’ll probably just buy everyone a cruise or something. Just like a ‘thank you’ kind of thing. We’ll see.


*Also, sorry if I repeat myself in what I'm typing as I feel deja vu as I'm writing sometimes but don't actually go back to read my previous entries. My bad.

[Pronoid]

@Bigato: No, I'm not a programmer. It would actually help my profession tremendously if I started learning python since automation is bigger than sliced bread and that's what my company is using to do it. I just have no motivation to learn. I'm in the networking field. I basically help to make the internet really fast. The next time you watch a cat video and it does its shenanigans flawlessly, there's a good chance my company had something to do with it.

As for the SO question, I'm definitely not opposed to it and would welcome finding someone. But I feel like I'm looking for a unicorn at this point. Doing my best to be modest, but I feel like I have a lot going for me for my age while having no baggage and drama to speak of. Very hard to find that in someone else even without mixing in ERE/financial stuff. I'm sure I'm just too picky.

[sky]

Is there a place where ERE is normal? I think every ERE type feels like an alien dropped from the sky.

[thrifty++]

Yeah totally agree Sky. ERE is so not normal. This morning I saw a homeless lady buying a takeaway latte. This afternoon a friend of mine who is a full time student asked me to pick up the latest model iPhone he had gotten as a "good deal" for $700 from someone off the internet. Two people who I have considerably more money than buying things I would never touch in a million years.

Iwantless your job sounds amazing. It sounds like the best job out of anyone I have seen post on here. And you are getting paid ridiculous huge money from the looks of your earlier posts. I'm in the wrong field. Would so love to know how to get into the type of work you do.

[spoonman]

How did you score such a low rent in West LA? I used to pay that much down in the south bay, but that was like way back in 2006-2007.

I find myself spending a lot of time in a weird ‘blah’ kind of mental state.

You are currently in the "blue demonstration" phase (I got that from Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage) of your journey, it can get really boring. You can try to devote some of your energies to planning the next phase, that's part of what I did to stave off boredom.

[Did]

It sounds like you have a great gig at work. It might be worth hanging in there for a while, I agree. And the SO issue is real. Truth is, if I was living in a car when I approached my now wife on the internet, she would have run a mile. I would maybe hang in there for that purpose since it isn't so bad - take up heaps of hobbies (even ones you couldn't afford if not working), enjoy yourself, be interesting, then once you grab someone, go on a mad adventure and discover how wonderful living with less and not being at work can be. That's what I did. I think living on very little is a lot more fun with a partner.

[Pronoid]

Thanks for the comments. It definitely helps relieve the alien feeling coming to the forum.

@thrifty - The IT field can be strange. I've seen many coworkers who are content staying at the same job doing the exact same thing making 30-40k forever. But, in my experience, those that are willing to learn and move companies are able to get decent promotions quite easily. That's all I've been doing really. I've worked for 5 companies in the last 10 years. I'm just fortunate I found a kickass gig to coast til the end of my savings journey.

@spoonman - My apartment is pretty dang small. I didn't realize they had a category smaller than a studio but they do - The Bachelor. Difference being there isn't a full kitchen. I have a mini fridge, hot plate, and a toaster oven. I bought a half freezer to add to the mix for food storage. Add my electric crockpot/pressure cooker combo and I'm good. But since I don't have a lot of stuff, the 200 sq ft is plenty. And location is great so I'm content.

[cmonkey]

I find myself spending a lot of time in a weird ‘blah’ kind of mental state.

You are currently in the "blue demonstration" phase (I got that from Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage) of your journey, it can get really boring. You can try to devote some of your energies to planning the next phase, that's part of what I did to stave off boredom.

I also feel I'm in that state quite often. IT work gets pretty routine and boring after a while, particularly in a support role. Even changing teams/departments/areas wouldn't change anything. IT is IT. I imagine this feeling is going to get worse as the investments become routine and I am in the middle of the accumulation stage. Making progress but still too far off to really feel the end coming.

[thrifty++]

I think blah is a higher level of state to be in than high stress in my experience. I am feeling a bit like this lately as well. I am not in a mass accumulation phase like you two though, I have quite a long way to go. But for me I think its a sign I need to spice up my life more than just work, saving and investment.

[cmonkey]

I think blah is a higher level of state to be in than high stress in my experience. I am feeling a bit like this lately as well. I am not in a mass accumulation phase like you two though, I have quite a long way to go. But for me I think its a sign I need to spice up my life more than just work, saving and investment.

Agreed on the higher level. Stress is a very bad state to be in. I am thankful to be out of it for the most part. On the other hand I look at coworkers and cannot say the same about them. I just can't understand why folks get worked up over work/career related issues. I have really entered a state of just letting work problems go and not even giving them a second thought but certain other people in my area have admitted waking up in the middle of the night pondering/worrying about work projects.

I have heard several folks mention it on line, that lots of folks feel as if they are living two lives...the one they are 'required' to live and the one they want to live. Its really a weird/fun/interesting thing to be able to observe in your own life.

[thrifty++]

I am definitely one of those people who experiences stress from work related issues. For me it has depended on the type of job and workplace. My last job was a place I frequently experienced this. There was a time where the stress was so intense I was experiencing anxiety issues. Nowadays work does not cause much stress in my current role, but still some. I think the larger the safety net you have though the less stress work will cause you as it becomes of less importance to your welfare. Looking forward to that feeling increasing.

[Pronoid]

Last weekend I was missing my blah mental state as a very last minute critical project had me working 10-18 hour days from Friday through Monday. I even got sick at the end of it. I haven't been sick in 9 months. Broke my freaking streak! So I agree. A blah mental state definitely wins over being stressed. Screw that.

Luckily, that kind of situation is very rare. The network we built had some damn cool concepts and technologies so it was a legit learning experience at least. I get kinda torn in these situations because I should be posting a write-up on the interwebz of lessons learned and a how-to since the topology had zero documentation. But at the same time I feel like others should feel some similar pains if they attempt to try and configure the same thing. Laziness will make me choose option number 2 most likely.

[Pronoid]

Not too many crazy new things have been happening recently but figured I should update regardless.

The job is still going well. It has actually been pretty damn busy. Lots of high priority projects and such. I found myself getting so involved that I started to care more than I should. I mean, I always care, but I became too attached to the outcomes and such. Basically gave way too many fucks than I should have. The usual thing where I was doing multiple people’s job roles in addition to other people on my team quitting to work for google. I figured it was a good time to promote myself and ask for a raise to which my manager said no. That kinda pissed me off but was the wake up call I needed to realize I had to switch back into the cruise mode I’ve been in since I got here. So now I’m back to my usual mindset of just doing what I need to and not giving anything more. I make “enough” so there’s no reason to stress out for another 5-10k more a year. Realistically speaking, after taxes and everything else, another 5k in a year really doesn’t do much more for me since my FIRE timer is so close to being here.

Speaking of timer, I think it’s at about 18 or so months until I call it quits, so basically April of 2017. That’ll give me time to max the 401k and HSA for the year, then I’ll be beyond set money wise and will reevaluate what comes next. My company used to have a ~5 month sabbatical policy. I just tried looking for it again and see that the time has been lowered to 12 weeks. Not that I’m too concerned but that could have been another option to test the waters which doesn’t exist now.

Financially, things are still on autopilot. I’m days away from hitting one of those major hundred thousandaire milestones. I’m basically close to a 4% WR of my total investments at my HCOL location spending. That includes rent that is higher than I would ever realistically pay if I wasn’t working. After 18 months, I’ll be less than 4% WR from only my taxable investments at a HCOL spending level. So that’s why I’m cool with working a bit longer as it’ll make the logistics of the draw down process easier and give a bit more safety. And once I stop working, I would move to a LCOL area to make things that much better anyhow.

Still doing a lot of salsa dancing. I continue to go to the studio to take classes like 6-7 times a week. I’m good enough now that I’ve also been venturing out into the social club scene a handful of times a month. At first I thought this was going to cost more than it does, but it turns out people that are really into dancing don’t actually like to drink so I least I don’t have to worry about that aspect. I still enjoy it as I like the feeling of mastering something. Although, I’m at a point where if I wanted to continue to improve at the same rate I’d have to consider private lessons. Those are damn expensive relatively speaking. So I might just keep riding this out then maybe I’ll start learning another dance when I peak out without privates. Like swing or something. Or maybe I’ll do like 1-2 privates a month. We’ll see.

I don’t feel like I talk a lot about my fitness/health even though that is actually a major part of my life. It’s another thing that’s basically implied like saving so I guess I forget to make a point about it. Since I moved here, I’ve been doing my best to sculpt the “beach bod”. That put me at about 170lbs at 8-10% bf. I’m 5’10” and small framed so I’m in a pretty good spot. It’s been a long time goal to get to 180lbs at 8-10% bf so now that’s where I’m headed. In the past, when I go through my bulk modes, I always ramped up the calories too much and too fast so I would gain more body fat than desired. Since I’m starting from a good place physique wise, I’m taking it slow and ramping up 2-300 calories a week as needed. I eat close to 4000 very clean calories a day, though, so squeezing in more and more can be challenging. I’m mostly injury free so it’s a good time to start gaining. I say mostly as I interestingly have a minor knee thing that seemed to have happened once I moved here and started dancing. I haven’t been using official dance shoes so I’m hoping it just has to do with that as rubber soles would put a bit of extra force on my knees when spinning and such. I’m buying some real shoes with suede soles now to hopefully cure that.

On the topic of buying shoes, I finally caved and bought a BIFL pair of boots to be my everyday/casual shoe. The wolverine 1000 miles. These are the most expensive foot wear I’ve ever purchased so hopefully they actually last a few years. They look pretty sweet though. I feel like I was meant to be a boot guy as weird as that might sound so I dig it. I do feel as if I look like a bit of a weirdo riding my bike wearing these suckers. Ha!

Umm.. I guess that’s all for my brain dump at the moment. Dance class awaits!

[Pronoid]

My first full year in SoCal is just about completed. It was definitely a move that improved many aspects of my life. Job satisfaction, relationships, health, happiness, skills, etc. The whole shebang really.

My spending in 2015 was easily under 30k. But this included $3500+ in moving costs (which was reimbursed and more), $1700 bike, $800 for 3 years of gym membership, $1000+ in rental car and gas for 3 weeks of family visits, $1000+ in gifts, $1000+ in Salsa lessons, and $1000+ in excess groceries/restaurants/booze due to moving to a new place, dating, and trying to be more social with work people. So long story short, my actual base expenses were probably on par or less than a full time minimum wage job here. Not too shabby with living in a ridiculously high cost of living area right next to the freaking beach.

The first year I moved to the greater NYC area, my spending was similar due to moving and everything that came with it. Then the following year my spending was more normalized being about 10k less. So I expect the same to happen in 2016. I might go on a few more traveling adventures but I will still be well under 2015 levels by far.


This year’s highlights included:
-Minimized all possessions to only items I use (minus a bag or two of things I’ve been too lazy to digitize/donate)
-Became dangerously competent at Salsa dancing
-Went on many social outings to prevent apartment hermit-itus
-Increased strength and muscular mass with regards to my body composition
-Increased net worth by ~25%
-Succeeded at proving my value and solidifying my position with the SoCal work client (contract with client was renewed for 2016)
-Reluctantly learned the basics of python programming to automate ridiculously tedious work tasks


Goals for 2016:
-Make an honest effort to become fluent in Spanish for the 8th plus time
-Continue to improve my Salsa dancing skills by social dancing more frequently and taking private lessons at least 2x a month
-Continue to improve my physique and target weak points
-Expand my food cooking skills to change the meals I eat more frequently, aka eat the same meal for 1 month instead of 3
-Read at least 1 book per month with a stretch goal of 1 per week
-Do more hobbies/activities either solo or socially and not worry about cost of said activity so much


As my routine and groove have solidified in the past handful of months, I have found myself doing less towards pursuing goals and hobbies like I once did. I keep getting stuck in a frame of mind where I just want time to pass in order to reach my FI/RE goals and will stupidly browse the nothingness of the internet in my down time as a result. The problem obviously is that I really don’t want time to pass. I don’t want to get older. It’s funny because I’ve been wanting to hit certain target numbers for so long but I also don’t want to be *gasp* 30. I want to be 30 so bad so I’m finally able to be done saving but at the same time I don’t really want to be 30. Ha, damn it, can’t win here.

So this is where some of my 2016 goals are coming from. I can easily blow through 1-4 hours on reddit, blogs, news, etc and have gained absolutely nothing to improve myself except for useless internet meme knowledge. Now even news articles get their stories from reddit posts which is ridiculously dumb. Sometimes I’ll make an attempt at being somewhat productive and read some personal finance blog or forum even though most are just rehashed information that I’ve already read a million times over. The other day I realized this is probably not always valuable (except ERE of course ) as I found myself reading about people being offended over the use of the word “girl” vs “woman”. Or there was a thread with the possibility of decent information of when to discuss ERE/MMM/FIRE with new dates and of course it derailed with people arguing about how you have to ask permission to hold a girls hand or give the first kiss. Arg… I end up leaving those damn threads more irritated with having gained nothing useful. So now I’m going to do my best to not read as much garbage online and focus on learning Spanish and reading books on my dusty Kindle. I’d really like to learn to sing or play an instrument but apartment life probably isn’t ideal for that plus I don’t really feel like I’m motivated enough to make the initial investment in said hobby. I’d be freaking stoked if I’m awesome at Salsa, Spanish, and have read 12-50 books.

So all in all, 2015 was a damn good year. I have a feeling 2016 will be much better, though. Plus it should be the last full year I will ever have to work again. Exciting!

[thrifty++]

Being 30 is not so bad. In fact 30 was the best year of my life (no shit). Much of ageing can be batted off by thinking patterns as well as wellness habits. I just turned 34 but people regularly think I am about 23 years old - likely result of attitude and many years of health oriented habits. Every Christmas when I see all my relatives I look the youngest of everyone there despite some cousins being 5 or 6 years younger than me. It also seems that in your 30s you can enjoy knowing yourself better and detach from peer pressure more easily. The downside is that I have found it more easy to acquire injuries in the last 3 years. I have realised that it is much more important to focus on regular flexibility training now and minimising sitting down time also.
But I think there is an element of ensuring that you enjoy your youth and health and make sure you make time for treats which are specific to you - not that I am the expert in that - I need to do more of the same.
I think ERE type lifestyles aid youthfulness and help in a number of ways - less excess which usually causes others to age (food, processed food, alcohol, other drugs), more exercise (cycling and walking as a minimum rather than sitting in cars all the time), less stress ( less financial stress from having a massive stash all the time and less stress because you stop working earlier), less exposure to toxins and chemicals (from doing most things on a DIY homegrown basis).

[Pronoid]

It has been a bit since I’ve updated this. I still frequent the forums but haven’t added to my Journal since not many revolutionary things have happened. Still the regular plug and chug. However, below is a brain dump of some new incremental stuff that has occurred.


Financials - Hit another neat thousandaire milestone around my birthday that just occurred so that was exciting. I have ~100K to go before I hit my goal of being in a super good place. I am cash heavy at the moment and I’m not so happy about it. I feel like my ‘set it and forget it’ strategy is not as ideal as I once believed it to be. Probably because I read all the doomsday threads on this forum But I really don’t have interest in deep diving in stock picking and such. I would rather get a lower return and not touch it than the alternative. I guess I need to find a happy medium somewhere and get on it.

Since December, I have been trying to not be as crazy with fretting over every single dollar I spend, which has actually been nice. I used to get slightly bent out of shape if I had to spend money on restaurants or unnecessary Uber transportation. The dating world has kinda forced me to spend something as it’s impossible to do everything for free in LA, especially when you don’t have a vehicle. All that translates into me spending like 100-300 more a month on randomness, which doesn’t make much of a dent in my savings rate so it’s not that big of a deal.

Started seeing a lady friend that I met through dancing over six months ago. She’s decently frugal and at least accepts all my “weird” ERE tendencies so I can’t complain. Next year when I pull the plug, we plan on traveling together. Things have been really great so far so we’ll see where it goes. I imagine the traveling part will be the real test in futureness…


Health update - I gained weight a bit too fast and got up to 180lbs. Part of this was due to frequent work travel and the other part was due to purposefully increasing calories in my regular home diet. I’m currently working my way down to 175 where I’ll be in a good place. I’ve been actually trying the soylent route in my morning and evening shakes. I basically make the powdered soylent and add other foods to get to the macros I’m shooting for. It was working pretty well for a few months but recently it’s jacking up my stomach. I halved the dosage per serving and that has seemed to help. I have like 6 boxes of the damn stuff left so I’m really hoping it gets better.

I’ve also started going to an indoor rock climbing gym 1-2 times a week. It is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. The GF was also wanting to do it so I decided to buy us annual memberships and she bought us climbing gear. It ends up being a fun activity to do together in addition to some extra exercise. She started eating healthier after watching me and my strict eating habits so I was more than happy to also encourage some fun exercise that she was motivated to do. It does hurt my minimalist goals as now I have another pair of shoes and belt but I suppose I’ll live It’s pretty interesting to see how far we’ve both come. In the beginning, we could barely do up to some 5.10a’s. Now we can do basically any 5.10 and up to 5.11a’s and 5.11b’s. It’s damn fun to say the least.


Latino Stuff - I am finally serious about the whole learning Spanish thing that I have talked about forever. My library membership gives me access to Pimsleur Spanish levels 1-5 which is pretty awesome. I can check out the audiobooks on my phone and I listen to a lesson both on my bike ride to and from work. I’m about half way done with level 3 at the moment. In addition, I also do Duolingo and another app called Memrise, although lately not so much of the Memrise. Add some Spanish TV shows on Netflix and a fluent Spanish speaking GF, and my own Spanish has come a long way. Pretty gosh dang neat.

I’m also still doing the salsa dancing thing. I actually got asked to join a salsa performance team, which I reluctantly agreed. The first performance is in October. I’m not nervous yet but I’m sure I will be as time goes on. I have never done anything like this so it will be an experience… I basically have 3 lessons through the week of some sort and social dancing sprinkled in every now and then. It’s also pretty interesting to see the skill progression on this front. I feel like the first year was just forcing myself to go through the motions and understand what’s happening. This second year the patterns are finally ‘clicking’ and I can more easily do new patterns and whatnot. I can never practice enough, though, unfortunately.


Work - I’ve been pushing for a promotion for the last year and a half. It looks like it actually might happen in March, which is rather interesting timing. I plan on pulling the plug either shorty after March or in September of next year, as those are the times when I get my bonuses. It would be funny to get offered a juicy promotion and then quit shortly after. Ha! Oh well. If I leave work in September, then at least I’ll have 6 months of the raise. Not that it would matter much in the long run portfolio wise anyhow.

I took a few weeks off work for family visits and overall relaxation. It has been damn nice. Wake up, go to the gym, lay of the beach, read, study Spanish, relax, etc. Makes me want to quit sooner than later. Even though I know such a routine could get old after a while, I still would like to test the limits Moving to some LCOL Spanish speaking country on the beach would be pretty great.

I’ve been doing my best to live the life I want to live even though I’m still working. Learning a language, dancing, going to the gym, rocking climbing gym, beach, GF, eating well, etc. Life has been good. But not having to go to work would make life better. I need more nature in my life. Hiking, kayaking, camping, etc… I only have time for that stuff on the weekends and then it also competes with the beach or other stuff I enjoy. I really don’t see myself reaching boredom anytime soon with said activities. And then I think about all the books I want to read, other languages I want to learn, and places I want to see… Man, there really isn’t enough time for it all right now. Soon though…soon…


Until my next brain dump.

[Pronoid]

@thrifty - I hear you on the injury part. I have definitely shifted the way I attack going to the gym and other physical activities to avoid messing myself up. I think the worst part of turning 30 is just knowing that I'm old to people in their early 20s. Ha, just being I remember thinking that of people in their late 20s and early 30s when I was a pup going to college. The circle of life...

[jennypenny]

I’m also still doing the salsa dancing thing. I actually got asked to join a salsa performance team, which I reluctantly agreed.

What is that exactly? Where do you perform? Clubs? Competitions? It sounds really cool.

[Pronoid]

Well, another year down. Just hit my 2 year anniversary of living in SoCal. Quality of life here is still good when the weather is sunny and warm as that means I can go do stuff and be outside. But job satisfaction is at an all-time low. Luckily, my personal intrinsic goals are probably at an all-time high.

Health/Fitness
I have a more heightened focus on my health than usual, which is saying a lot since I'm usually the "face of fitness and good choices" compared to my peers. Minus occasional self-inflicted injuries, I'm ridiculously active and I feel great because of it. Ride my bike to and from work daily (going on 3.5 years of being car free!), lifting iron 4 days a week, running 2 days a week, and yoga + rock climbing 1-2 days a week. I feel good. My next goal is to increase my flexibility. Don't laugh, but I've never been able to sit cross legged/pretzel style. I remember being in grade school sitting on the floor doing whatever activity and always being super uncomfortable since I couldn’t just relax like everyone else. Doing yoga is super hard as a result as well. Damn those poses that have you sit cross legged and then do other stuff. I just sit there and laugh while squirming in pain. So, if I can even sit halfway comfortable cross legged by the end of the year, it would be a huge success.

Dancing
I completed the salsa performance back in October and that went relatively well. I did goof on one part as I only spun once instead of doing a double, but it was fine besides that. I was supposed to do another one this weekend but it ended up not getting choreographed. I can't say I'd voluntarily go back for more but it was definitely something I'm glad I experienced. This year I want to go social dancing more often. I'm a solid intermediate-advanced at salsa but could still improve on style points. I also started learning hustle, which is ridiculously fun, and waltz. I can see myself getting into hustle since it can be danced to regular top 40 type songs. LA is the mecca of salsa, though, so it’s easy to find places to dance. I'll have to do some work to find where the social scenes are for hustle once I get more moves under my belt.

Job
I had been pushing for a promotion for the past year or 2 and just found out I wasn’t going to get it. Not that I really needed it anyhow, it was just a goal kind of thing. I am/was pretty bummed about it just because I do a lot of stuff and am certainly eligible for it. My manager just sucks. I was hoping it would be a check box kind of thing before I bounce, but oh well. Just makes me want to leave sooner, which is probably a good thing. The dynamic of my job has also changed a bit with core team players having left. My customer has also had org changes and now there are super manipulative folks in charge. It still is relatively laid back and chill, but now I have unnecessary added pressure resulting from micromanagement and leadership fears.

FI
I deemed myself financially independent a while ago, but it all really depends on the cost of the rent in whatever place I end up. Last year's spending was about $23k but well over half was rent. I should be on track to hit around $18k this year. My core spending has been about $6-7k over the past 3 years. So as long as I'm not over paying for rent I'll be in good shape regardless. My plan is to only spend at a 2% SWR anyhow, so no worries there.

RE
The original plan was to bounce in March of this year. March is a key month since I front load my 401k, ESPP stocks hit, and I get half of the yearly bonus. However, due to timing of some family stuff, it makes more sense for me to OMHY (one more half year) it and bounce after August of this year instead. End of August is when I get the other half of the yearly bonus, get more ESPP stocks, and will be able to receive like 10 more paychecks. So, at that point I'll be more comfortable with my financial picture and will hopefully be more psychologically ready to leave the workforce. And I'll hopefully have a better understanding on how to proceed with health insurance planning.

Preparations
I'm still on the quest to optimizing my possessions into just what I use and need with the ultimate goal of fitting everything into a single backpack. I finally got off my lazy butt and put like 8 items on ebay, half of which are backpacks which is weird in a funny way. It was interesting as the stuff I figured wouldn’t sell for much sold very quickly and the stuff I thought was valuable hasn’t gotten much traction. There is still like 5 hours left on the auctions so fingers crossed that most of the action happens in last 5 minutes. Otherwise, my backpack is basically ready to go. I will need to rebuy some merino stuff as mine are getting old with minor holes, but otherwise have everything else. So, once August ends, the next phase of the life plan will commence...

2017 Goal Summary
Run a 7 minute mile - at about an easy 8 minute now - Record was 5:45 in high school!
10% bodyfat at 175 pounds - currently 180 with 12-13%
Sit crossed legged without being in pain
Climb up to a 5.12d consistently
Go hiking on a trail at least once per month
Social dance 1-2x per month but continue training multiple times a week
Read at least 1 book per month
Continue Spanish lessons
Invest all the cash I've been sitting on
Complete FIRE preparation taskers (update passport, establish different state residency, final dr appointments, etc)
Quit work


So, that’s the update and my plan. Now I just need to focus on the present and stop counting down til August…